Editorial: Maelzel's Chess Player [pp. 318-326]

SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER.
breast he actuates the little machinery necessary to guide
the left arm and the fingers of the figure. This machinery is situatedjust beneath the left shoulder of the Turk,
and is consequently easily reached by the right hand of
the man concealed, if we suppose his right arm brought
across the breast. The motions of the head and eyes,
and of the right arm of the figure, as well as the sound
echec are produced by other mechanism in the interior,
and actuated at will by the man within. The whole of
this mechanism-that is to say all the mechanism essential to the machine-is most probably contained within the little cupboard (of about six inches in breadth)
partitioned offat the right (the spectators' right) of the
main compartment.
In this analysis of the operations of the Autonmaton,
we have purposely avoided any allusion to the manner
in which the partitions are shifted, and it will now be
readily comprehended that this point is a matter of no
importance, since, by mechanism within the ability of
any common carpenter, it might be effected in an infinity of different ways, and since we have shown that,
however performed, it is performed out of the view of
the spectators. Our result is founded upon the following observations taken during frequent visits to the exhibition of Maelzel.*
1. The moves of the Turk are not made at regular
intervals of time, but accommodate themselves to the
moves of the antagonist-although this point (of regularity) so important in all kinds of mechanical contrivance, might have been readily brought about by limiting the time allowed for the moves of the antagonist.
For example, if this limit were three minutes, the moves
of tl e Automaton might be made at any given intervals
longer than three minutes. The fact then of irregularity, when regularity might have been so easily attained, goes to prove that regularity is unimportant to the
action of the Automaton-in other words, that the
Automaton is not a pure machine.
2. When the Automaton is about to move a piece, a
distinct motion is observable just beneath the left shoulder, and which motion agitates in a slight degree, the
drapery covering the front of the left shoulder. This
motion invariably pre —edes, by about two seconds, the
movement of the arm itself-and the arm never, in any
instance, moves without this preparatory motion in the
shoulder. Now let the antagonist move a piece, and
let the corresponding move be made by Maelzel, as
usual, upon the board of the Automaton. Then let the
antagonist narrowly watch the Automaton, until he detect the preparatory motion in the shoulder. Immediately upon detecting this motion, and before the arm
itself begins to move, let him withdraw his piece, as
if perceiving an error in his manceuvre. It will then
be seen that the movement of the arm, which, in all
other cases, immediately succeeds the motion in the
shoulder, is withheld-is not made-although Maelzel
has not yet performed, on the board of the Automaton,
any move corresponding to the withdrawal of the an
* Some of these observations are intended merely to prove that
the machine must be regulated by eind, and it may be thought
a work of supererogation to advance farther arguments in support of what has been already fully decided. But our object is
to convince, in especial, certain of our friends upon whom a
train of suggestive reasoning will have more inlluence than the
most positive a piori demonstration.
tagonist. In this case, that the Automaton was about
to move is evident-and that he did not move, was an
effect plainly produced by the withdrawal of the antagonist, and without any intervention of Maelzel.
This fact fully proves, 1-that the intervention of
Maelzel, in performing the moves of the antagonist
on the board of the Automaton, is not essential to the
movements of the Automaton, 2-that its movements
are regulated by mind-by some person who sees the
board of the antagonist, 3-that its movements are not
regulated by the mind of Maelzel, whose back was
turned towards the antagonist at the withdrawal of
his move.
3. The Automaton does not invariably win the game.
Were the machine a pure machine this would not be
the case-it would always win. The principle being
discovered by which a machine can be made to play a
game of chess, an extension of the same principle would
enable it to win a game-a farther extension would
enable it to win all games-that is, to beat any possible
game of an antagonist. A little consideration will convince any one that the difficulty of making a machine
beat all games, is not in the least degree greater, as
regards the principle of the operations necessary, than
that of making it beat a single game. If then we regard
the Chess-Player as a machine, we must suppose, (what
is highly improbable,) that its inventor preferred leaving
it incomplete to perfecting it-a supposition rendered
still more absurd, when we reflect that the leaving it
incomplete would afford an argument against the possibility of its being a pure machine-the very argument
we now adduce.
4. When the situation of the game is difficult or
complex, we never perceive thie Turk either shake his
head or roll his eyes. It is only when his next move
is obvious, or when the game is so circumstanced that
to a man in the Automaton's place there would be
no necessity for reflection. Now these peculiar movements of the head and eyes are movements customary
with persons engaged in meditation, and the ingenious
Baron Kempelen would have adapted these movements
(were the machine a pure machine) to occasions proper
for their display-that is, to occasions of complexity.
But the reverse is seen to be the case, and this reverse
applies precisely to our supposition of a man in the
interior. When engaged in meditation about the game
he has no time to think of setting in motion the mechanism of the Automaton by which are moved the head
and the eyes. When the game, however, is obvious,
he has time to look about him, and, accordingly, we see
the head shake and the eyes roll.
5. When the machine is rolled round to allow the
spectators an examination of the hack of the Turk, and
when his drapery is lifted up and the doors in the trunk
and thigh thrown open, the interior of the trunk is seen
to be crowded with machinery. In scrutinizing this
machinery while the Automaton was in motion, that is
to say while the whole machine was moving on the castors, it appeared to us that certain portions of the mechanism changed their shape and position in a degree
too great to be accounted for by the simple laws of
perspective; and subsequent examinations convinced
us that these undue alterations were attributable to
mirrors in the interior of the trunk. The introduction
of' mirrors among the machinery could not have been
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